Novato Theater

The effort to re-open the Downtown Novato Theater, which has been shuttered for decades, launched in 2010 with a proposal to the City Council from Bernice Baeza, who spearheaded the successful efforts of the Lark Theater in Larkspur.

There is no doubt that re-opening this theater is of enormous economic importance to our Downtown and will benefit the community as a whole.

A re-opened theater will be a community cultural center with film and arts offerings serving the public, schools, non-profits, regional businesses and performing artists. It will restore a much-needed magnet that our downtown needs to truly fulfill its potential. It will be open 7 days a week, 365 days a year, drawing people downtown at night and on weekends, providing the impetus for retail to open in the evenings and on Sundays. Another retail business at that location just won’t do the job; the Theater is the key.

My public support of this effort began with a statement at the October 12, 2010 City Council meeting in support of an Agreement of Purchase and Sale of the Novato Theater to the non-profit “Novato Theater” (a 501c3 public benefit corporation) created by Bernice, where I also issued a challenge grant to the community in the form of a pledge of $150,000 from the County’s Community Partnership Fund, to help meet the initial $750,000 fundraising goal set by the City.

I’m thrilled to report that the initial milestone was met in the Fall of 2011, and the City has transferred title of the building to the Novato Theater non-profit.

This is an important milestone, allowing the non-profit to take ownership of the building, but there is much more to be done to actually get the doors open. The non-profit continues to raise funds toward the estimated total of $3 million needed for construction and operations, and hopes to begin construction in early 2013. I have heard from several people that they would donate once they were sure this endeavor was real.

Well, now is the time to make good on that promise — if you haven’t already, visit www.novatotheater.net and donate today!

It is now up to all of us who want to see a new and improved theater in our downtown to work with Novato Theater to make this happen. Here is how you can get involved:

Novato Theater has a Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Novato-Theater/170510699649740?ref=ts&v=wall

Mission: The exclusive objective and purpose of the Novato Theater, a California nonprofit public benefit corporation, is to restore and maintain the historic downtown Novato Theater and operate it as a two screen state of the art community cultural center in order to bring high quality independent, first run and classic film, music programs and multi-cultural events to enhance the cultural diversity and community life of the City of Novato and Marin County.

Contact: novato.theater@gmail.com to contribute, volunteer and support.

Bernice has a proven track record at the Lark, with the same community partnership model that includes donations as well as funds raised from investors who receive a return on their investment. In a survey conducted by my office in the spring of 2010, half of the 518 respondents requested to be kept up to date on this project, and dozens volunteered to donate, help raise funds, and contribute professional services. The re-opening of the Novato Theater can be a joyous effort that gives us a constructive way to help solve the economic distress we are in and gives us something to work toward as a community.